Article spacing means



Q N. F. ARMSTRONG ET AL 2,549,281

April 17, 1951 ARTICLE SPACING MEANS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed 00ft. 10,:1949

April 7, 1951 N. F. ARMSTRONG ET AL 2,549,281

ARTICLE SPACING MEANS Filed Oct. 10, 1949 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 l f I i l I v I I *L I N P m- N I SD r J Patented Apr. 17, 1951 UNITED STATES. PATENT OFFICE Tweddell; Newcastle-on-Tyne, England; assignors: to The Crown Cork Company Limited,

SouthalLEngland.

Application October 10, 1949, .Serial No. 120,498 In Great Britain November 1,1948;

This inventi'orr consists inan improved dc of a series ofvice for controlling the passage articles along a conveyor.

The object of the invention is toprovide an improved devicefor controlling such aseries or" articles whereby, for example; they may be the moving articles and held there, and so ar rests their progress until the condenser means have finished discharging, when the solenoid is again deenergised and the, arresting meansrendered inoperative, and: the above; cyclerepeated for thenext article.

For spacing articles the. distance apart may. be variedby'providing a number of condensers in parallel and providing" switching meansfor cutting these and; out, so: thatv by cutting in one or more additional: condensers; andso in creasing the. capacitance, the resistance of. the solenoid means remaining unaltered, the magnitude of the. discharge may be increased and. the length of time increased during which thesolenoid isenergised, and therefore the length of time increased during which the arresting means are held in the path ofthe articles.

The invention willnow be described by way of example with referenceto the accompanying diagrammatic drawings which show two devices.

In the said drawings:

Fig. 1.is: a diagrammatic layout of a device for controlling the passage of bottles onthe conveyor of a labelling machines in which it is desirable to space a labelled bottle from its on coming unlabelled neighbour and so prevent congestion.

Fig. 2 is a diagrammaticlayout of a positioning device.

Referring more particularly to Fig. 1, I is a switch arm arranged for transverse movement over the edge of the conveyor 2, the said arm being slightly obliquely arranged and having a cam portion 1 a to promote a camaction between itself and the surface of the" passing bottle, so that the latter normally pushes the tripping'armlaterally outof the path of theconveyor against the action of a spring. The tripping arm I is pivotally connected to the ends of two parallelarms 3, 4-of different lengths, pivotally mounted on the machine frame, the longer beingnearer'to the conveyor to produce the desired obliquity. The said parallel arms extend beyond, their; pivoting points and are pivotally connected to. alink 5 which at one end is pivotally connected to the end of the plunger of a bottle spacing solenoid B. A tension spring 1 isdiagonally arrangedbetween the parallel arms 3, 4 to hold the cam portion ianormally over the conveyor 2 when the solenoid 6 is deenergised;

At a point between: its pivoting axis and" the end connected to the tripping arm, the parallel arm 3 is pivotally connected: to two tv/o-waymicro switches 8, 21. The microswitch 8 in its normal position is adapted electrically to connect a set ofcondensers 9, H), H themselves connected in parallel across, the coil, l2" of a contactor switch |3controlling the bottle spacing solenoid 6. All but one of thesaid condensers, that. is to say the condensers 9', and I'll are provided with switches l4, l5 for cutting. them in and out in order to select the required time constant when they are discharged through the coil l2. In, the other position, of the, microswitchfl it connects the DLC. terminals of a, rectifier [6' or. other D. C. source across. the said condensers, thec'ontacts of this portion of the microswitch 8 being permanently bridged. by a. relatively high resistance I! which while preventing any appreciable current. flow from the current source through the solenoid. I2 when. the switch Bisin its normal position, ensures the maintenance of the polarity of. the condensers 9, [0, II. This enables theuse of electrolytic condensers.

On the side of the conveyor 2 opposite. the tripping arm I, there is an inwardly bent steel leaf spring 18 which is adapted tomaintain the bottle on the. conveyor against the reaction of. the tripping arm as: it passes the. latter, when this; is. necessary, for example, in the case of small diameter bottles.

.A second, contactor. switch solenoid I9 is energised from a single condenser 20. This second condenser solenoid circuit has a shorter time constant than the condenser solenoid circuits 9, I0, ll, l3. It is controlled by the microswitch 2| which, as above stated, is also operated by the parallel arm 3, and controls the solenoid circuit of a solenoid operated detent 22 which is adapted to engage a recess 23a in a .2 driving wheel 23 connected by the connecting rod 24 to a horizontally reciprocating label spreader (not shown), the driving wheel 23 being driven through a slipping clutch (not shown) whose driving member is continuously rotating during the operation of the machine.

25 is a motor for driving the labelling machine.

In operation, assume a bottle B is passing the tripping arm I, it forces it sideways, so that the parallel arms 3, 4 are rocked and the microswitches 8, 2| are moved into the dotted line position in which the respective sets of condensers 9, Ill, H' and are connected across the rectifier I6 and are charged. When the bottle B has passed the tripping arm I the micro switches 8, 2| are restored to their normal full line positions and the contactors l3, l9 are energised so that the detent 22 is withdrawn from.

tle. As the detent contactor I9 is energised by a condenser 20 only, the detent solenoid is deenergised first and the detent 22 falls back on to the periphery of the driving wheel 23 in sliding contact with it but as the bottle spacing contactor i3 is energised, by a number of condensers, it is held on longer so that spacing of the bottle takes place.

The parallel arm mechanism has the advantage over a swinging trip arm that the arm I is moved transversely across the conveyor so that it may be inserted without difiiculty between adjacent contacting bottles, whereas if a swinging trip arm were used it would not be able to return after a bottle had passed, in time to engage the following bottle at the desired arresting point, the latter having in the meantime moved with the released bottle and therefore having taken up a position beyond the arresting point before the trip arm has disengaged from the released bottle. Another advantage is that the pressure of the bottles against the arm 1 does not require a corresponding efiort by the solenoid as would be the case if a swinging trip arm were used.

Fig. 2 shows an arrangement which, in addition to spacing, positions articles such as bottles for crown corking or syruping or other operation requiring accurate positioning. According to this arrangement the contactor switch 26 which correspond to the contactor switch l3 of Fig. 1 controls a solenoid 2! whose plunger is operatively connected to two oppositely moving V- blocks 28, 29 which are arranged on opposite sides and so as to be normally clear of the con-- veyor 30. The bottle trip lever 3| is adapted to actuate a microswitch 32 controlling a condenser circuit similar to that associated with the switch 8 of Fig. 1, which controls the solenoid 21. Hence when a bottle operates the trip lever 3| the V-blocks 28,29 move towards each other and grip the bottle for an interval of time depending on the number of condensers in use.

We claim: 7 1. A device for controlling the passage of a series of articles along a conveyor, comprising two way switch means, tripping and arresting means operatively connected to said switch means and adapted to be actuated by the passage of the articles, and to be moved into the path of the articles, a solenoid operatively connected to said tripping and arresting means, and condenser means controlled by said two way switch means so that in one position of said two way switch ,means said condenser means are charged, and

in the other'position of said two way switch means said condenser means energises said solenoid to cause itto move said tripping and arresting means into the path of the moving articles and hold it, thus until said condenser means have finished discharging when the solenoid is again de-energised and the tripping and arresting means rendered inoperative, and the above cycle repeated for the next article in the series.

4. A device according to claim 1 wherein the tripping means arealso the arresting means and are adapted to actuate the switching means, two condenser solenoid circuits controlled by said switching means, said circuits having different time constants, the circuit with the larger time constant being adapted to control the passage of articles along the conveyor, and the circuit with the shorter time constant being adapted to control an operation on the article.

5. A device according to claim 1 wherein the tripping and arresting means are separate, the

arresting means being adapted to engage an article, a solenoid adapted to operate said arresting means, the switching means being adapted to control said solenoid, so that when the tripping 6. A device according to claim 5 wherein the arresting means comprise two V-blocks arranged on opposite sides of and clear of the conveyor,

and adapted to move in opposite directions to effect gripping of the article.

NORMAN FRANCIS ARMSTRONG. JOHN ALEXANDER TWEDDELL,

REFERENCES orrED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number V Name H I Date I 2,134,373 Parker Oct. 2 5," 1938 2,171,362 Gulliksen Aug. 29,1939 

